THE UPDATE

Check out the house pics because I've added more.  I even got some pics of Sierra at the playground.  About the only this missing is some more shots of the garage.  So far you only get to see the messy section!  There's also some more pics of the tandem rally and more coming once my co-workers wife sends them over.

We had planned on a 67 mile ride with Eugene bike club GEARs this Sunday but after looking at the route and realizing it was a bit hillier than we were used to (especially given that we'd be pulling Sierra), we decided on something else to do this weekend.  We in fact, had a nice camping trip.  Well, Sunday.  At 2pm.  Admittedly we left a bit late, but it was a blast regardless. 

The plan was to go to Indigo Springs Campground along the Middle Fork Willamette River outside of Oakridge.  Oakridge is a mountain bike mecca in a mountain bike mecca (Oregon, silly!) and the area we planned on going to is home to the Middle Fork Willamette Trail #3609 which has been named one of the area's best mountain bike trails.  It is pretty damn epic, but our plan was not to go mountain biking, but to do some road biking.

As mentioned on the Oakridge cycling page, the roads around Hills Creek Reservoir are ideal places for cycling.  We had remembered going to Indigo Springs and thinking how wonderful it would be to ride on 21, so that was the plan.  It was hot and we wanted to ride so the idea of being on smooth pavement shaded by the great trees of the Willamette National Forest with no traffic sounded really good.

It sounded so good that we started getting anxious as we came close to our destination.  Finally we came to Camper's Flat Campground which looked really nice and completely empty so we decided to just set up shop there and ride out to Indigo Springs.  We set up camp and took a dip in the river in what was apparently a popular watering hole as a bunch of mountain bikers came along to join us.

Refreshed, we geared up and got ready to ride the tandem.  There were two things we had neglected to remember, though.  One, Camper's Flat is at 2000' and the end of 21 is basically at Timpanogas Lake, at 5200' so we had some climbing to do.  Admittedly Indigo Springs' elevation was more consistent with Camper's Flat than the lake, since it was only 2800'.  What we discovered Indigo Springs did have in common with the lake was mosquitos.

We had visited the lake before, very excited to go to the headwaters of the Willamette and more so given that it's semi-primitve.  We had barely enough time to enjoy the brisk fresh air when they came in droves.  I'm one of those rare few people in the world that aren't allergic to mosquitos, so I don't notice half the time when they're biting.  No swelling, no itching, no big deal.  Well, they started bothering me!  I knew if that was the case, Christina was in bad shape.  I turned to look at her flailing and the air and screamed for us to run back to the car.  We opened the doors, jumped in quickly, and slammed the doors tight.  They were open for a second or two and we had a whole swarm in the car with us.

The situation was better at Indigo Springs, but not by much.  I barely had enough time to get ready to go to the bathroom when Sierra started screaming and Christina was flailing at the air again.  So we took off.  Feeling a little pooped and realizing we weren't going to make it up another 2400' easily, we decided to head back.  We barely pedalled, having an experience similar to that of people who take those downhill bike tours on Hawai'i's volcanoes have.  The quiet whirr of freehub pawls moving up and down.  A cool breeze.  The fading sun trying to peek through the trees.  The smell of pine and cedar.  That was awesome.

Then we came back and had some food and drink, built a fire to chase away the actual few mosquitos that were there, and eventually went to sleep with the steady roar of the river drowning out any other noise.  We woke up early and I went to work and that was the end to a rather short but eventful weekend.

We'll definately be doing something like this again, but ever since the tandem rally, Christina has been really pumped about doing more riding together.  I made a rather comprehensive list of rides in the area and we're currently working on selecting some that we want to go on.  More on this soon.  But while we're on the subject, that brings me to the next topic..



THE TECHNOLOGY

First off, one of our most cherished readers recommended setting up an interactive calendar on the blog so that we could all be clear on what everyone else is doing.  I'm disappointed to report that I did not find a good solution that encompasses everything I want:  ability for others to add/edit, integration with Apple iCal to allow for automatic pubilshing, and non-platform specific online viewing with download capacity so that people can import into other calendar software. 

Google Calendar is very close but needs to take it to the next step with iCal integration (it does allow imports but won't auto-publish) and ideally would pull in the URL field.  I've left comments to them about these issues so hopefully they'll respond.  Meanwhile, I found that the iCalx Exchange allows for free publishing and has a non-platform specific PHP viewer.  One can download in iCal format (which assumedly should import into non-Apple calendar packages) and if you're running iCal you can even subscribe to it.  It is missing the editing capacity, but it works.  Links are now on the sidebar to the right.  The birthdays calendar and all-inclusive calendar (which has the birthdays in it) are password protected since I figure this is sensitive information.  Ask and you shall recieve.  Lastly, if you have anything to add, let me know and I'll make it happen.

Also on the technology tip, since I've been doing more photo sharing lately I've been getting irritated with the stark interface Monkeyview provides.  You might have noticed I started using Flickr as of late, which I really really like not only because I like the interface to view the pictures and the way they're organized but a freeware program 1001 allows for easy uploads a la import from Apple iPhoto.  The problem is that the free account has its limits.  I was thinking about a Pro account when I thought to check what Google had to offer.  I was pleased to find a solution.

Picasa Web Albums is currently in test mode but it seems to work (if you can see the pictures it sure did!).  It requires using the Picasa software which is available only for Windows and Linux but admittedly it's a bit redundant to iPhoto.  Hopefully they'll make a little uploader utility for Macs or at least a Picasa version.  Perhaps then I could just get rid of iPhoto.  The software is very feature rich allowing for easy organization, has nice adjustable thumbnails and gives some nice photo editing capacity.  If you haven't already clicked on the pic at the top, do so.  Check it out and see what you think.  Which reminds me..



THE MUSIC

You need to check out Lady Sovereign.  She makes me go fast on my bike and clean the house.  She makes hard hitting, bass heavy, club ready fast hip hop in a refreshingly old school way.  No bling, no hoochies, no guns, just sweet sweet rhymes delivered in a silly yet serious way that only a boisterous underage 5'1" limey girl can do.